Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)

Various documents from the Jacques Périer Collection illustrate the dawn of Russian abstract art in the 1910s.

Markus was known for black and white photos of modern-day cowboys and would live with the people he photographed, even sleeping under a wagon in the snow once according to his wife Maria. Markus won multiple awards and went on to photograph Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington for top fashion magazines. (NYT)

Offered at the October 26-27 rock memorabilia auction at New York’s Hard Rock Café, the green cardigan set a new record for sweaters sold at auction. Cobain wore it at Nirvana’s performance on MTV Unplugged at Sony Music Studios in November 1993, just months before his suicide.

May 15, a lock of Kurt Cobain's hair sold for more than €12,000 at Iconic Auctions in Arizona. Now, it is a self-portrait, a drawing annotated in pencil, of the Nirvana frontman that is up for sale at Julien's Auction in Beverly Hills, from June 11 to 13. The artwork is estimated at $10,000/20,000. 

Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, which he played for the legendary "MTV Unplugged" performance, with Nirvana, sold for a record $6 million at Julien’s auction in Beverly Hills, California. Estimated between $1-2 million, the founder of RØDE Microphones, Peter Freedman, won the heated bidding war.

Hailed as the first museum of modern art in the U.S., the Société Anonyme was founded by artists Katherine S. Dreier, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray. Its collection offers a unique record of modernist innovation and experimentation.

Dusseldorf City Council voted to return the painting to the heirs of Kurt Grawi, a Jewish entrepreneur and banker, persecuted by the Nazis. The painting was sold in New York to fund an escape from Germany. This could establish a precedent for the restitution of art sold outside of Nazi-occupied Europe. (Hyperallergic)

Kurt Cobain’s blue Fender guitar from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video has been given a “very conservative” estimate of $600,000 - 800,000 by Julien’s Auctions. It goes on sale (with strap and original case) at their Beverly Hills showroom next month. Part of the proceeds will go to a mental health charity. (CNN)

New paperwork was requested and a criminal complaint instigated against the board in Düsseldorf, Germany, who had recommended it be returned. Die Füchse (Foxes) is valued between 18 million and $36 million and was in the process of being returned to Kurt Grawi’s heirs, after being taken by the Nazis in 1935. (ARTnews)

With more than twenty artists and ninety works from around forty public and private collections, this exhibition explores the Surrealists’ taste for esotericism, alchemy and the occult.